UFC 200 recap and results

Pretty much everything went right for the UFC organization up until Wednesday when it was shockingly announced by USADA that Jon Jones was being pulled out for doping allegations which sent the MMA world and fans in a frenzy. It looked as if UFC 200 was going to be left without its highly anticipated rematch between Jones and Daniel Cormier until Anderson Silva stepped up and took the fight with two days notice. Overall from the early fight pass prelims with a half empty arena all the fights delivered for die-hard and casual fans. And the majority of the fights would’ve had arguments for being a co-main event or main event in general whether on PPV or a Fight Night event.

Fight Pass Prelims

Jim Miller def. Takanori Gomi via TKO (punches) round-one.

Gerard Moussasi def. Thiago Santos via TKO (punches) round-one.

Joe Lauzon def. Diego Sanchez via TKO (punches) round-one.

FS1 Prelims

Sage Northcutt def. Enrique Marin via (unanimous decision).

T.J Dillashaw def. Raphael Assuncao via (Unanimous decision).

Kelvin Gastelum def. Johny Hendricks via (unanimous decision).

Juliana Pena def. Cat Zingano via (unanimous decision).

No question that the prelims lived up to the hype. Super Sage returned to form. Dillashaw looked great as he looks to get a rematch vs Dominique Cruz. Gastelum couldn’t finish a declining Hendricks, but had him wobbled several times, and probably one of the biggest shocks was how Pena had her way with Zingano.

UFC 200 Main Card

Cain Velasquez def. Travis Browne via TKO (punches) first-round.

This was Cain’s first fight in 13 months, after losing his title to Werdum in his home country being his last appearance. This fight seemed that it could go either way from the get go, with Velasquez being as dominant as they come in the Heavyweight division, and Browne relying on his massive size of 6’7 against Cain. Besides these two Heavyweights throwing it down early on, I can’t think of anything scarier than Cain Velasquez throwing spinning wheel kicks at you. Cain won by stoppage with three seconds remaining in round one.

Probably the most asked question coming into this fight was if Aldo could bounce back after being humiliated in his last appearance in the octagon after being knocked out in thirteen-seconds by Conor McGregor. Let’s just say he took his training seriously. Frankie bounced around a lot more and got busy early on, but Aldo was the one who remained a lot more conservative with the use of his strikes, busting Edgar early on from his left eye. One thing that stood out to me was how Aldo was able to avoid all of Edgar’s takedown attempts, as Edgar struggled to get him down making him seem like a child at times. I was heavily cheering for Edgar, but this fight wasn’t as close as I thought it would be. Conor better hope he can somehow pull out a surprising victory over Nate Diaz (which he won’t) but I’m saying this because after seeing how focused and eager Aldo was to get back in the octagon I honestly don’t think Conor would survive a second meeting between the two. (Also huge credit to Frankie Edgar as he became the first fighter to log 6 hours of fight time).

(AP Photo)

Daniel Cormier def. Anderson Silva (unanimous decision)

Exactly what we expected happened. Cormier would use his weight and wrestling to take Silva down, and smother him. Now that’s not a knock to Cormier– he stayed busy instead of just focusing on his landing some vicious elbows and punches to Silva. At 41 years old, Silva basically had a long shot of pulling off the victory, but the fact that Cormier couldn’t finish off a declining world-class athlete in Silva was more surprising in my eyes. Cormier is one of the elite and most effective wrestlers in all of MMA, and that’s where Cormier was having all of his success. The crowd absolutely hated it as they continuously cheered “stand them up” as Donald Cerrone even led some of the chants with the fans. This fight was unique to fans, I think as it was something new for everybody, and a dream fight in many ways. Silva had the crowd on his side for the whole fight and still managed to put up a fight against one of the current elites, and even hurt him with a vicious kick late in the third-round but was a little too late. Either way you look at it respect to both fighters, Silva for taking the fight in two-days notice, and the same for Cormier for accepting the challenge.

(USA TODAY Sports)

Brock Lesnar def. Mark Hunt (unanimous decision).

In my opinion, most fans were split when it came to Lesnar. Of course there were the casual fans who cheered for Lesnar (not that you had to be a casual fan to cheer for him, because I cheered for him) but majority of the hardcore MMA fans wanted Hunt to extend his winning streak to three by knocking out Lesnar. Everyone knew the fight was going to go one of two ways. Hunt having his way with Lesnar, or Lesnar doing what he does best and that is taking down his opponents and punishing them. Lesnar did just that in the first-round as Hunt did his best to defend, but had a hard time with a big guy like Lesnar. In the second-round Hunt landed some shots, and Lesnar seemed to panic when he failed to take down Hunt, but in the third the beast was able to seal it by controlling the whole third-round, and he landed some huge shots to the head of Hunt, as Hunt failed to be the guy to send Lesnar packing back to WWE.

First off, what is going on in the Women’s division? Since Ronda Rousey was knocked out by Holly Holm the women’s Bantamweight title has been floating around. Holm convinced me that she was elite, but Miesha was able to pull off a gutsy performance over Holm which seemed like Tate finally got over the hump; and would go on to hold the title for a good while, but well we were all wrong. From the opening bell Miesha didn’t have much to offer as Nunes went to work early, hurting Tate and she wasn’t able to recover. The fight almost ended earlier via strikes, but when Tate hit the mat Nunes decided to go for the choke (which wasn’t even locked in all the way) Miesha quickly tapped out. Congrats to Nunes, she landed vicious and significant strikes early on that Tate was wondering why the fight wasn’t waived off when she was eating those punches. UFC 200 was one for the books, and was a memorable event for all fans.

https://www.myfantasysportstalk.com/ufc-200-recap-and-results/https://i1.wp.com/www.myfantasysportstalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/a-32.jpg?fit=634%2C415&ssl=1https://i1.wp.com/www.myfantasysportstalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/a-32.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=12016-07-11T11:32:29+00:00Orlando TorresCombat SportsMMARecent Posts#UFC200 #TheBeast #DC #AndersonSilva #prelims #fightpass,UFC 200Pretty much everything went right for the UFC organization up until Wednesday when it was shockingly announced by USADA that Jon Jones was being pulled out for doping allegations which sent the MMA world and fans in a frenzy. It looked as if UFC 200 was going to be left without its highly anticipated...Orlando TorresOrlandoTorreslando17800@yahoo.comContributorHello everybody my name is Orlando, my friends call me Lando for short. I love all kinds of sports and fantasy sports as well. I grew up watching the Spurs and Cowboys since I was a kid, so those are my teams. I love writing, video games, spending time with my son along with acting and films. Movie buff. Follow me on Twitter @itslandoyoMyFantasySportsTalk